Mystique
by RawrRoarRawr
Summary: What's a couple of years to someone who lives forever? What's a couple of years to someone who doesn't? Also masquerade balls aren't the best when it comes to trying to figure out identities…


**Surprise I'm alive. Couple of notes before we begin~**

 **-This is a rather cheesy practice oneshot so I can try to get back into writing because, hey, might as well practice with the fandom that started my writing in the first place.**

 **-No clue where this fits on the AT timeline though lol. Seriously, there's a bit of stuff that'd go against the canon material and I wrote it as if we were only like a few seasons into Adventure Time. Except for a few things so yeah i have no idea. I don't remember a lot of details about the show anymore and am waiting for the chance to rewatch the important episodes.**

 **-Also hopefully the upcoming miniseries will be the thing to fully bring me back into AT because it's kinda sad over here and there's not much to read**

 **And yadda yadda okay lets do this Disclaimer: I don't own Adventure Time**

* * *

 _One… Two…_

Slow music began to play from the surrounding speakers. His cloudy eyes watched the feet of the dancers that repeated the same movements that they have been doing for the past hour or so. _Or was it two hours?_ Whatever, it didn't matter. He was too busy trying not to pass out from boredom to care. The rather dim lighting of the room to create a 'romantic atmosphere' didn't help one bit in his attempts to stay awake.

His eyes just tried to keep focus on those dancing in the middle of the ring, watching couples twirl in circles and do whatever else it is you do during a waltz dance. Of course, he _knew_ what they were doing, having a lot of the moves memorized after rather useless weeks of practice that he didn't need in his opinion.

With eyesight going fuzzy from staring for too long, he grumbled under his breath and questioned for about the twentieth time that night why he was even there in the first place. He replayed his memories once more, probably to mock himself for agreeing to attend such a boring event.

A few months prior, he had received an invitation to a 'Masquerade Ball' hosted in the Candy Kingdom and was also asked to 'guard' the guests during the special event. His initial thoughts were that if they needed guards there was bound to be some sort of fighting involved, right? And being the fight-loving hero he was, he immediately accepted the invitation to go. Yet upon his agreement came tiresome dancing lesson and way too many clothes measurements to count. To further disappoint him, on the day of the ball he found out he was just to stay inside and keep watch with almost nothing else to do. He doubted he was even needed since the outside of the kingdom had Candy Guardians anyway… but he figured they'd rather be safe than sorry.

His nose twitched from under his rather weird, blue mask of his but he dare not sneeze or make any sort of other noise. Earlier he had sneezed _once_ yet managed to completely ruin a moment and receive multiple death glares in the process. Everyone was taking the ball so seriously you couldn't even _sneeze_.

 _Just how important was this event anyway?!_

Grouching about the uncomfortable blue suit he was wearing, he tugged at his white collar to try to loosen it up. It was weird, even if the suit was perfectly measured to his size, he felt it to be too stiff and tight to move in. It may be because he was so used to his carefree lifestyle of loose clothing that he felt out of place wearing something so formal.

But that wasn't the worst part. The _worst_ part of _accepting the invitation_ was that there were 'No Bear Hats Allowed.' As much as he pleaded to keep his beloved bear hat, in the end it was forced to be left at home. His revealed blonde hair was then trimmed and slicked back which annoyed him more than he thought it would that he was tempted to secretly try to mess his hair up as a form of rebellion.

He admitted there were some good points to coming along. A couple of his friends came which adds up a lot of points. But all the negative points just overshadow this good point that he didn't really take notice of it.

So, there he was standing at a post to keep watch of the guests, hoping something interesting would happen hopefully soon.

"Finn?"

His eyes snapped open in alert, alarmed by whoever called out his name. Was it trouble? "Oh. What's up Princess?" Finn calmed down seeing there was no actual threat as Princess Bubblegum approached him with two beverages in her hand.

Unless Princess Bubblegum being the one who invited him to this lame ball counted as a threat… _Why, Bubblegum, why?!_

She softly smiled at him, handing him one of the wine glasses while taking a sip of her own. He gratefully accepted it and took a sip too and smiled noticing it was just regular grape juice instead of the actual wine everyone else was drinking. "There isn't a reason for you to _literally_ stand here all night, Finn." Princess Bubblegum told him, pulling up one of her light pink gloves that had fallen.

Finn shrugged for his answer, feeling her curious stare through her mask when he didn't say anything else.

She lightly sighed, turning from him to watch the dance floor like he was. "Where's Jake?" Princess Bubblegum changed the subject. "Wasn't he on watch with you? I think it'd be a lot more fun for you if someone else was here."

"I told him he should go enjoy the party with Lady and that I would keep watch instead. He gets real fidgety not doing anything so I thought it'd be better to let him go dance. Then they disappeared somewhere and now I have no idea where they are." He laughed and shook his head. But Princess Bubblegum was right; it'd be a lot more fun if he had one of his closest friends with him. Princess Bubblegum, being one of the 'one of his closest friends', was generous enough to talk to him right now, but she would have to leave sooner or later being the host of the ball and everything.

And besides there were only two people he knew who could make everything fun. Jake and…

Well, it didn't matter. That person's been gone for years now…

Princess Bubblegum nodded at his answer and they stood there in a small and comfortable silence. Then she spoke again once the rather long song ended, "Finn, when I invited you to this ball it was more for you to enjoy being with everyone and have a bit of fun. Why don't you go out there and ask someone to dance? That's why I had you take those lessons anyway."

Finn resisted the urge to scratch his nose that was starting to itch, "I dunno, Princess. These kinds of parties or balls or whatever aren't really my style. I like those parties with music blasting and everyone going bananas." He shrugged.

She laughed at his response, "Tell you what, next time we could throw a party the way you like if you go ask someone to dance. I know some girls out there that have been _dying_ for you to ask them." Princess Bubblegum gestured to a group of females that Finn had been trying to avoid since the beginning. "Just give it a go. Who knows? Maybe you'll like it." She patted his shoulder and took another sip of her drink.

Finn groaned knowing what she was saying was more or less a command. Kind of like "Hey if you don't go dance right now you aren't invited to my totally math dance party next weekend and I won't forgive you."

That's just the way he saw it anyway.

He turned to face her and held out a hand and politely asked, "Princess Bubblegum, may I have this dance?" It wasn't that he was interested in her that he was asking. He'd grown from his previous crush on her a long time ago and was now just asking as friends. It was better than asking a potential creep-o to dance…

Princess Bubblegum patted his shoulder again with a smile, took his now empty glass, and walked away.

 _Ouch_.

Oh well. He expected it. She had important conversations to hold with other royalty or something. This ball was kind of a business deal too than it was just something whipped up for fun.

Now, let's see… Finn scanned the ballroom for someone to dance with, purposely not looking towards a specific group that continued to stare at him. Too bad Flame Princess didn't come. Thankfully enough, they had become great friends since their breakup. He'd matured greatly since then that it wouldn't be awkward to ask her to dance if she was there.

Finn walked towards the center of the ballroom, finding nobody he'd really want to dance with. "If I can't find anyone then might as well just get it over with and ask somebody random…" He spoke to himself, looking around some more before the next song would start. Finn quickened his pace as he walked around the now annoyingly large ballroom, heading towards one of the a bit darker corners where the tables and chairs were.

Naturally he should have been looking where he was going, but, to put it shortly, he wasn't. "Ack!" Finn rammed into a table with his side, doubling over and hitting his face on the table too. His dumb mask jabbed at his face and scratched it. "Ow."

To make matters worse someone nearby burst into laughter, having saw his little fall. Finn's face grew red in embarrassment as he stood back up and dusted himself off. Looking towards the person who happened to be sitting at the table he had rammed to, he readied himself to apologize, but ended up forgetting about it once seeing their appearance. He gaped, suddenly at a loss for words.

"Dude that was so lame." The person grinned, her elbow on the table as she rested her chin. Her other hand held up a glass of red wine.

"Uhh…" He stared at her for a good second before realizing she had spoken to him. "T-Thanks." Finn cleared his throat, having no idea why he thanked her for making fun of him. Glob it, he was the least lame person he knew! This time he gave her a slight glare but couldn't hold it for long as her beautiful playful smile directed back at him.

Yes, he admitted it. Even if half of her face was covered by an awesome black mask, he could tell she was extremely pretty. Weirdly enough, she seemed almost familiar but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Curse you dim room lighting that didn't allow him to see more clearly! Also what the flip, Face Masks?!

"Uhm…" Finn tried to figure out what to say. "Sorry about that…"

"No probs." She drank the rest of her drink and set the empty glass aside.

Finn debated for a moment, reminding himself that he still needed someone to dance with before it was too late. Well, he did say he'd dance with somebody random if he wouldn't be able to find anybody, so might as well give it a shot. "Hey, do you want to dance? With me, I mean." That was weird, he didn't stutter. What he said came out smoother than he expected it to.

She shrugged, "I didn't really come here to dance. I'm waiting for something." Stretching her arms, she yawned and settled back to her position of resting her chin with elbow on the table.

"Some… _one_?" Finn asked, not sure why he sounded disappointed.

She studied him with her bright red eyes for a few seconds, eventually going back to her playful smile, "Nope. Some _thing_. Also, by the way, I get the feeling you don't know me, Finn. A bit of a bummer don't you think?" Her white teeth shined when she grinned, Finn taking notice of fangs that should have helped him figure out who this person was. Apparently she knew him, but he didn't know her? Weird.

Finn shook his head, unable to figure out who this might be as he listed off a multiple of names that might fit her description, "Kind of hard to see in this lighting." He used an excuse. Hey, it was technically true. But now invalid since she could tell who he was in the same lighting…

She faked a hurt gasp, "Wow and I thought coming back would be just _a little_ more touching. Or something. But, whatever. This is good. I didn't really want to reveal myself until later anyway. Maybe tomorrow." Grinning again, she stood up from her chair and pulled him towards the dancing area. "Alright then, I'll dance with you to kill some time."

Finn nodded, gratefully smiling as she dragged him along. He found Princess Bubblegum amongst a crowd, meeting her stare once she looked towards him to make sure he was actually dancing. Next she looked at the girl dragging him along and seemed to squint in confusion to get a better look as to who it was. Regret making the room lighting so dim now, Bubblegum?

His attention went back to the mysterious girl who took him to the center of the room, blushing a bit seeing she was leading him by the hand. "Wait, you said earlier that you just came back from somewhere?" He asked her to distract himself as they readied their dancing position for when the song would start.

"Yep. I left for a while now to go exploring for anything I probably haven't seen yet. I just came back to Ooo a few hours ago and found out there was a little ball going on here so I decided to come." Her eyes twinkled with mischief as if there was more to the reason why she had wanted to come to the ball.

"Oh, math. Exploring? You don't seem like a person that'd want to come to these stuffy formally things though." He observed the dark dress she was wearing, realizing how it complimented her almost perfectly. Clearing his throat, he turned his attention elsewhere.

She laughed, "And you don't either, but here you are."

The song played and they began to dance. Finn's face grew a slight tint of pink again once nearly all eyes were on them and nobody else danced because they wanted to watch. What's with that?! "Good point…" He tried to ignore them and answer her. She was completely unfazed by all these looks and he wondered how she did it. "Y'know I had this friend who left a while ago too. Well it was more like a few _years_ , but she hasn't come back yet. She wouldn't like these types of parties either." Finn smiled at his old memories of one of his best friends. "You kind of remind me of her."

The girl stared at him for a good, long moment before saying, "You still aren't that bright are you, Finny?"

"Hey!" He glared. What did she mean 'aren't that bright'? If he was a lightbulb in a room full of lightbulbs, he'd be the light-iest bulb of them all! In other words, he's really bright!

Okay, not really... But he liked to feel that he was.

Finn grumbled under his breath, but calmed down seeing how gracefully the two of them danced as he twirled her. He no longer felt embarrassed that almost everybody was watching them. Good thing the music drowned out their conversation though or it'd be super awkward to have everyone listening to them idly talk as they danced. But on the downside he couldn't hear what they were saying about them. Oh well. "Whoa, you're a really great dancer."

She shrugged as he stopped twirling her, "Not too bad yourself. Let me guess, Bubblegum over there made you learn how to dance." She motioned to Princess Bubblegum chatting on the other side of the room with some people.

 _Thank you, Bubblegum. I'm sorry I got a bit annoyed at you in my head for making me learn to dance for what I thought to be no reason._

Finn nodded, noting down that this person also knew who Princess Bubblegum was. "Good thing too, or this would've been totes awkward." He laughed, smiling as they came face to face and her red eyes met his blue ones as they spun around.

"I was half-expecting it to be actually. I didn't think I'd remember how to use my legs."

He blinked. "Are they… removable or something…?"

"No you doofus. I just float more often than I walk…" The way she said it made him feel a bit more stupid than usual. It was a good thing he knew he was all about stupid, or that insult might've hurt.

"Hey one of my friends used to float all the time too! She's the one that's been gone for years now. Being reminded of it, I kind of really miss her actually…" He could feel his heart flutter when she gave him a brief curious look that immediately turned to disappointment. "Uh. What?"

She groaned at him as he twirled her again. "Sometimes you annoy me, Finn."

"Uh… Sorry…"

"Anyway, so your friend? You actually really miss her?"

Finn showed slight offense on his face when she asked, "Well, yeah. She left without warning too and I haven't seen her since. It's been years." He held a saddened frown, "I hope she's okay. Well, I know she's okay since she's like way tougher than I'll ever be, but it's still something to worry about for some reason, you know?"

This mysterious person that Finn had ended up growing fond of in less than thirty minutes looked to the floor and mumbled, "Must be some terrible friend to leave you worrying like that…"

Finn quickly shook his head, "Nah. If you knew her she's a radical dame who has a bit of a problem with… emotions… I guess? I don't blame her. She's been through a lot. So it's not really like her to want to 'stay in touch' when going somewhere." He wandered off into his thoughts with a stupid smile, not going to continue and further explain what he meant.

She stared at him though with slight surprise, the two of them just dancing in silence. It was a nice silence since neither of them felt they had anything more to add onto that subject. "Hey Finn? How old are you now?"

Finn thought for a moment at her odd question, "Uh… Let's see… My birthday was a few months ago so… Nineteen. I think. Yeah." He nodded, looking down at her and waiting for her to explain her reasoning for asking.

"Hm… That explains it." She nodded too. "I was wondering why you're suddenly really attractive."

Finn would have spat his drink out if he was even drinking. "H-Huh?!" His face became a bright beet red.

"Yeah before you were just cute but now you're like attractive cute. I'm impressed. –Also I don't know if you wanted to know, but those creepy girls over there have been super angry at me and I'm trying so hard not to laugh and scare them to death." She nudged to the group of girls that had been wishing for Finn to dance with them since the start of the party.

Finn ignored her last statement, still in shock that she had just bluntly called him attractive. He didn't notice she had gone on a completely different subject before completely blurting out on accident, "Y-You're really pretty too!"

…

…If Finn could choose the moment when he wanted to disappear forever, now would be that moment.

She raised an eyebrow at his sudden confession, "Oh, man. No need to point out the obvious, Finn." She snickered, randomly turning the other way for a few seconds before meeting his eyes again. The way she didn't get completely awkward actually made him feel way more confident.

Finn could tell she was totally blushing as much as she attempted to hide it even if it was a really light tint of pink anyway. Really cute for a person like her. He smiled at the thought, knowing he was stepping back into dangerous grounds as his annoying need for romance suddenly smacked him in the face.

Small crushes are more trouble than they're worth… But it didn't matter. There was nothing he could do about it now. It'd probably fade away eventually…

Her blush went away as quick as it had come and she sighed, changing the subject and saying, "I didn't think it'd take this long to wait…"

"Wait…?" Finn asked her to clarify.

"That thing I was sitting here waiting for, remember? The reason I agreed to dance with you to kill some time."

"Oh, oh. Right. That 'some _thing_ ' you're waiting for. What is that something anyway?"

Before she could answer him, the ground started to shake.

Her smile turned to a wicked grin. " _Finally_."

An… An earthquake? A monster?

Finn let go of her hands when they stopped dancing, looking around in alarm as everyone else noticed the shaking too. What was going on?! But he just smiled, glad something was happening. Of course, this would have been much more appreciated if it happened _before_ he had met this person when the party was absolutely boring.

She could only laugh, diverting his attention back to her. "Hey Finn." She began to float.

Now that he thought about it…

He didn't even know her name.

"Y-Yeah?" Finn wondered what she was going to do.

She gave him a soft smile that made his heart skip a beat, "I'm home."

And she kissed him.

He could do nothing in his surprise. If it was in her plan to completely distract him from the disaster she seemed to bring, it totally worked.

Not even a second passed as the large front doors burst open and in came a _gigantic_ wave of water. Somewhere in that moment she had separated from him as quick as a flash and had disappeared once the wave of water crashed down, everyone else screaming.

It didn't take long for the water to wash away, only leaving a few inches left inside the ballroom. Everybody was _soaked_.

A single laughter in hysterics was the only thing that made a sound and Finn knew who's it belonged to. He pushed his at last ruined hairdo out of his face, looking up at the girl floating in midair laughing her head off. While others started to complain and cry over their ruined outfits, all he could do was laugh with her. He was blushing like mad but he didn't care.

Finn watched as Princess Bubblegum stomped her way over to the laughing girl floating way too high to reach. He noticed that Princess Bubblegum looked _used_ to having something like this happen and he wondered why. "Every time! This is exactly why I don't let you come to these parties!" Princess Bubblegum accused her.

The still mysterious girl lazily flipped over onto her back and snickered, "Yeesh Bonnibel. I'm surprised that anybody would _want_ to come at all. I'm just livening things up a bit, you know? I call this one 'Underwater Dance Party!'" She flipped back over onto her stomach and stuck out her tongue. "It's kinda your fault anyway. Normally you'd do everything it takes to keep me from coming, but this time I just flew right in."

Princess Bubblegum growled, "I didn't know when you'd be back! I _swear_ –Someone get me a long broom, please." She said in the most polite voice anyone has heard but once she was handed the nearest broom, Princess Bubblegum raised it up and tried to whack the girl down with it.

"Whoa! Chill out!"

Finn just watched, confused about how friendly they were with each other. It may not look friendly to the normal person, but Princess Bubblegum acts a tad differently among friends. In this case, trying to hit her in the face with a broom. Any other person in this situation and Princess Bubblegum would probably just lecture them nicely and kick them out forever; never letting them set foot into the Candy Kingdom again.

Wait… did that mean Princess Bubblegum knew who she was even in the still dim lighting and under the mask? Finn stood up, squeezing out the water from his clothing as he approached the two of them. Unfortunately, every other person was insanely peeved to the point that they all held brooms and tried to whack the party crasher in the face with it.

If a sneeze was enough to earn death glares… who knows what completely destroying the whole party would do.

She laughed again at everyone's angry faces, deciding that was her cue to get out of there.

"W-Wait!" Finn called out before she would fly out and maybe be gone for good. He hoped she wouldn't leave for good…

Finn didn't know how she had heard him so easily in all of that chaos, but she did and she turned around as she floating towards the exit. He frantically tried to push through the crowd to get to her, but it was no use. There was just too many people. Angry people at that.

She somehow could tell what he wanted to know, winking and saluting him goodbye, "I'll see you tomorrow, Finn. Let's go adventuring or some biz to make up for all the lost time. –Ah flub!" Just when she wanted to make a dramatic exit, her mask ended up loosening itself from her face and fell off before she could catch it. She groaned in annoyance knowing she wouldn't be able to get it now unless she wanted all those people to beat her with brooms.

Pushing her long raven hair out of her face, she pondered for a bit and shrugged, leaving the scene with the angry mob following her out.

Finn could only stare with his mouth wide open.

 _No…_

 _No way…_

 _After all these years…_

The mask came gently floating down in front of him. Finn held out his hand to catch it, just staring down at it with a deadpanned look.

Princess Bubblegum, being the only other one that didn't leave, was behind him angrily mumbling as she swept the water out of the room. "Why does she have to be such a child?!" She spoke a bit of German that Finn couldn't understand, and eventually stopped sweeping to calm down. "Though…" She began, "It's nice to have her back again..."

Finn listened to her, completely agreeing. It was _definitely_ nice to have her back again.

Clutching the mask in one of his hands, he raced out the door and followed the mob still viewable in the distance. A large smile spread across his face. "Marceline! Welcome home!" He yelled into the night sky, knowing she could hear him.


End file.
